NationStates Jolt Archive

From the Beeb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7929136.stm):

The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in which he was also slightly hurt, party officials say.

Susan Tsvangirai was travelling with her husband south of Harare when their vehicle was in collision with a lorry.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, formed a unity government with President Robert Mugabe last month.

Mr Mugabe and his wife have visited his former long-term rival in hospital.

Speaking outside the private clinic in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi said of the prime minister: "I saw him. I spoke to him. He walked from the vehicle that brought him to hospital, he is fine."
Hopefully this is just a tragic accident. (The need to say such a thing indicates the sheer calamity that is Zimbabwe.)

Mugabe's opponents have a nasty history of winding up in car crashes.

How terrible. My condolences go out to PM Tsvangirai.

there is only one solution governments of the world need to buy Zimbabwean dollars

My first thought was how much of an "accident" was it?

how very convenient for Mugabe, eh?
I wonder whether who they were trying to kill - were they actually aiming to get Tsvangirai to get him out of the way, or were they aiming at his wife in order to send a message to Tsvangirai not to fuck with Mugabe?

My first thought was how much of an "accident" was it?

Yeah, I doubt it was really an accident. I mean, it's possible, but knowing that c**t Mugabe, I'm not too sure.

This is Zimbabwe we're talking about. A country that's a classic example of good economies gone bad. Sanitation and other public services are nearly nonexistant. Roads are so unsafe, it took a maracle for her to have survived as long as she did.

My first thought was how much of an "accident" was it?

This^.

She was in the car with her husband. Part of me thinks they just missed their target.

My first thought was how much of an "accident" was it?

^^This

how very convenient for Mugabe, eh?
I wonder whether who they were trying to kill - were they actually aiming to get Tsvangirai to get him out of the way, or were they aiming at his wife in order to send a message to Tsvangirai not to fuck with Mugabe?

Given the description of the crash, if it were an attempt on their lives I'd say the potential assassins were not 'aiming' for either in particular. From the sounds of it, anyone who survived the crash was lucky.

I'm not one to go for conspiracy theories on a whim but I doubt this could be anymore suspicious.

I'm not one to go for conspiracy theories on a whim but I doubt this could be anymore suspicious.

Given what we've seen of Mugabe's modus operandi, a hit would involve a roadblock, a lot of flung lead, and some torching of people and buildings/vehicles.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/07/zimbabwe.tsvangirai.wife.accident/index.html

Tsvangirai thinks the driver of the other vehicle intentionally crashed into his car.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tsvangirai was right.

Typical of the Mugabe regime. They can't even pull off an assassination properly.

If it was an attempt on Tsvangirai, likely it wasn't a sanctioned hit from Mugabe so much as some fucked-up Zanu-PF loyalist who took it upon himself to go kamikaze For Bob.

A sanctioned hit would have been more thorough.

A sanctioned hit would have been more thorough.

They tried a sanctioned hit but by the time the assassin got paid and ran to the store, the bullet he needed had gone up in price by 150,000,000% and he couldnt afford it

"But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell - or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, them I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive." -Don Corleone.

'Nuff said.

[QUOTE=Chumblywumbly;14580296(The need to say such a thing indicates the sheer calamity that is Zimbabwe.) [/QUOTE]

Indeed.

Zimbabwe is one of the few places where I think a violent external imposition against the government is both in order and do-able...

Indeed.

Zimbabwe is one of the few places where I think a violent external imposition against the government is both in order and do-able...

Why bother? It will collapse under its own weight sooner then later.

Why bother? It will collapse under its own weight sooner then later.
Not that I necessarily disagree, but folks have been saying this for years.

A sanctioned hit would have been more thorough.
I dunno, getting a US aid truck to collide with Tsvangirai's car was a pretty well thought-out ploy, so if he'd died there and then he could blame it on the demons in white house, etc. etc. etc.

Indeed.

Zimbabwe is one of the few places where I think a violent external imposition against the government is both in order and do-able...
Bleeeeeeuch. If we take out Mugabe we get his even more corrupt psychopath deputies coming to the fore instead, and rather than ZANU-PF dying as a political movement, it'll be revitalised in the blood of Mugabe

It's questionable how far Mugabe himself -- rather than the defence & police ministers -- is actually running things over there nowadays anyway...

It's questionable how far Mugabe himself -- rather than the defence & police ministers -- is actually running things over there nowadays anyway...
Which is a worry.

Most folks are banking on Mugabe dying and Tsvangirai (or another opponent) waltzing into power, a la Franco. But there's probably plenty of Zanu PF staff who won't give up their privileges easily.

I too suspect that this was engineered, if not by Mugabe than by one of his supporters.

Maybe we should raise money to pay for an assassination attempt on Mugabe.

Maybe we should raise money to pay for an assassination attempt on Mugabe.

Definitely. But we shouldn't do it here, where people might think we're joking. We should all get together in a well-bugged apartment with a government agent among us, and after a pragmatic discussion of exactly how we want the hit conducted, we should all swear solemn vows to the death of Mugabe before laying our actual cash on the table.

That way, it's a proper crime of conspiracy to commit murder, and if our own security forces don't intercede, an act of war.

If we do it on the Internet, the money will fall into the hands of some monster who meditates for a day job, or rescues abandoned kittens. The Internet is too unreliable for our serious intentions.

[/irony]